OKLAHOMA CITY (March 11, 2026) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond today is asking a court to order the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board to tell the whole truth on why it rejected an application to establish the Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School. At its meeting this week, the Board cited only religion as its reason, ignoring flaws the Board previously identified in the application that were never remedied.
“This Board is playing politics with the taxpayers’ money,” said Drummond. “The revised Ben Gamla application had multiple serious flaws, which this Board itself identified just weeks earlier. But instead of doing its job and listing every valid reason for rejection, the Board deliberately suppressed those findings to manufacture a cleaner path to federal court. I will not allow this Board to rig the record at taxpayers’ expense.”
The Board has a statutory duty to reject weak or inadequate applications. In February, the Board did just that – rejected the Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation’s application and listed all the reasons for the denial…